gwenonikki

Yesterday evening Colin and I headed to Shibuya to hang out. We found prissy-girl Mecca and great sushi. We also went to our first movie since arriving here. (I had been having withdrawal.)

With eight floors of “ladies wear” boutiques, which boast names such as “Pinky Girls” and “Poolside”, Shibuya 109 is the shopping beacon of light for teenaged and twenty-something Tokyo females. It was crawling with the most high-maintenance princesses I’ve ever seen. They were teetering around in their stiletto-heeled boots, their arms dripping with Vuitton purses and totes. What I find shocking (and revolting) is that I’d say about 60% of Tokyo’s female population puts in that same high production effort. They just have different styles. But no matter what, every look is very, very feminine.

That high level of maintenance requires lots of unabashed public preening. No furtive glances in the subway windows here. I saw one teenaged girl fix her hair in a train window, without pause, for at least three stops. If she’d waited, she could have used one of the many mirrors actually provided on the platforms. And wherever there’s a public bench, there’s a high chance a girl will be perched on it, putting on makeup. Incredible.

On a completely different note…. Something else I’ve noticed is that tiny children, like five-year-olds, use the subway all on their own. That’s how safe it is here! Incredible, and wonderful. In Kyoto we saw two little boys, who must have been around six, walking home together well after dark, along the almost deserted Path of Philosophy. Seeing all of that prompted me to do some Googling on Japan’s crime rates. They are 70 !! times lower than those of the U.S. That’s an ENORMOUS difference and certainly one that speaks loudly for the group mentality they have here.

At the top of Shibuya 109, we found a sushi place that serves fresh and live fish. “Live” meaning it’s swimming until you order it. (Yes, somewhat disturbing.) They use no frozen fish – a rarity for Tokyo. And given the restaurant’s location, each piece cost only 109 yen (like $1.25 Canadian). We tried fish that we’ve never even seen on sushi menus at home. Yum.

Then we were off to our movie – Pieces of April, which turned out to be a pretty decent, somewhat quirky indie. I had thought it sounded the least bad when looking down the list of I, Robot; The Nightmare Before Christmas; The Punisher; Catwoman; etc.

Going to a movie in Japan was like going to the ballet or a play in Canada! I’m almost considering shelling out another whoping $20 for a ticket to see if it’s the same at other theatres. Since no food or drink were allowed inside, we got to enjoy our pre-movie drinks in the lobby at the extremely clean tables, bordered by stylishly hung movie posters. That also gave us a chance to browse the movie’s merchandise. Yep – April’s tank top was for sale, as well as Pieces of April t-shirts, which all of the staff were wearing. If we had wanted to, we could have listened to tracks from the movie’s CD before purchasing. Colin kept saying it was like an art installation. I started to agree once I saw some framed stills from the movie in the women’s washroom. The attention to detail was insane.

Then we were called into the theatre in the same order in which we had purchased our tickets. It was like boarding a plane! We were even offered blankets!! Colin was amazed at how clean the place was. I enjoyed the silence. The slight hum of muffled conversations. No awful AM radio blared. No trivia jumped across the screen. And it was just as quiet after the movie. The majority of the audience waited until the credits stopped rolling !! and then left quietly, in orderly fashion. Wow. I think I’m going to need ear plugs for my first movie back in Canada.